May 9 - Wed

Framing is the fitting together of pieces to give a structure support and shape during the process of construction. Framing materials are usually wood, engineered wood, or structural steel. Building framing is divided into two broad categories: heavy-frame construction, where vertical supports are few and heavy, and light-frame construction, where supports are numerous and smaller. Support may be provided through rigid panels or diagonal bracing.

Shown here is the framing of a home in Sabah, Malaysia.Photograph: Uwe Aranas

May 13 - Sun

Taraxacum officinale is a flowering herbaceousperennial plant of the family Asteraceae (Compositae). Commonly known as the dandelion, it can be found growing in temperate regions of the world, in lawns, on roadsides, on disturbed banks and shores of waterways, and other areas with moist soils. Although widely considered a weed, especially in lawns and along roadsides, it is sometimes used as a medical herb and in food preparation. The species is well known for its yellow flower heads that turn into round balls of silver tufted fruits that disperse in the wind.Photograph: Petar Milošević

May 14 - Mon

Luidia senegalensis is a tropical species of starfish in the family Luidiidae. It has nine long, slim tapering arms attached to a small circular central disc and grows to a diameter of about 30 to 40 centimetres (12 to 16 in). It can be found from the coasts of Florida as far south as southern Brazil, where it favours sandy, muddy or shelly seabeds in sheltered locations such as lagoons. It feeds primarily on molluscs, small crustaceans, and polychaete worms, which it swallows whole by everting its stomach and engulfing its prey.Photograph: Andrea Westmoreland

May 15 - Tue

The Gillette Mach3 is a line of safety razors produced by Gillette beginning in 1998. The three-blade design is marketed as allowing for shavers to use less pressure and fewer strokes, reducing skin irritation. Several models are based on this design, including the Mach3 line for men and the Venus line for women.Photograph: Chris Woodrich

May 16 - Wed

Madonna is a title given to a composition by the Norwegian expressionist painter Edvard Munch. He painted several versions of the composition between 1892 and 1895, using oils on canvas as well as lithography. Several interpretations of the bare-breasted half-length female figure have been offered, including that she represents the Virgin Mary, a femme fatale figure, or a paradox of "sensuality shot through with imagery of death and corruption".

May 20 - Sun

The Sky Garden is an interior roof garden that occupies the 34th to 37th floors of 20 Fenchurch Street, London. Called London's highest public park, it includes a large viewing area, terrace, bar and two restaurants. However, it has drawn criticism for its limited greenery.Photograph: Colin

May 21 - Mon

A map of Iran and Turan at the time of the Qajar dynasty, as drawn by Adolf Stieler and published in the 1891 edition of Stielers Handatlas. Published by Justus Perthes, this was the leading German world atlas of the last three decades of the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. It went through ten editions from 1816 to 1944, with the 8th edition (1888–1891) containing 95 maps.Map: Adolf Stieler

May 22 - Tue

The European robin (Erithacus rubecula) is a small insectivorouspasserine bird. Formerly classified as a member of the thrush family, it is now considered to be an Old World flycatcher. About 12.5–14.0 cm (5.0–5.5 inch) in length, males and females are similar in colouration, with an orange breast and face lined with grey, brown upperparts and a whitish belly; the orange breast emerges gradually after birth, as with the juvenile specimen shown here. The species is found across Europe, east to Western Siberia and south to North Africa; it is sedentary in most of its range except the far north. The unrelated American robin was named after it.Photograph: Charles J. Sharp

May 24 - Thu

Hurricane Erika was a weak hurricane that struck extreme northeastern Mexico near the Texas-Tamaulipas border in mid-August of the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season. Initially, Erika was not designated a hurricane by the National Hurricane Center as initial data suggested winds of 70 mph (115 km/h) at peak intensity; only after later analysis was it revised to Category 1 intensity. While Erika's precursor disturbance was moving across Florida, it dropped heavy rainfall. In south Texas, Erika produced moderate winds of 50 to 60 mph (80 to 95 km/h) along with light rain, causing minor and isolated wind damage in the state. In northeastern Mexico, Erika produced moderate rainfall, resulting in mudslides and flooding, and two people were killed when their vehicle was swept away by floodwaters.Photograph: NASA, MODIS/LANCE, HDF File Data processed by Supportstorm

May 26 - Sat

Harvesters is a 1905 oil painting on canvas by the Danish artist Anna Ancher, a member of the artists' community known as the Skagen Painters. Unlike many works of the community, this painting depicts not the fishing activities in Skagen, but a man and two women on their way to start the harvest in the fields. Owing to its depiction of a bountiful harvest and a scythe, the work has been interpreted as juxtaposing life and death. The painting is in the collection of Skagens Museum.Painting: Anna Ancher

May 27 - Sun

Jay Gould (1836–1892) was a leading American railroad developer and speculator. He began acquiring depreciated land in his 20s, and following the Panic of 1857 he became the majority shareholder in the Rutland and Washington Railroad, having acquired stocks for ten cents on the dollar. Over his lifetime, he acquired a fortune conservatively estimated at $72 million ($1.76 billion in 2016). He has been portrayed as a ruthless robber baron of the Gilded Age, hated and reviled. However, some modern historians have used primary sources to combat this portrayal.Photograph: Bain News Service; restoration: Adam Cuerden

May 28 - Mon

The krona is the currency of Sweden. Introduced in 1873 to replace the riksdaler, the currency's first issue included coins in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, and 50 öre (where 100 öre = 1 krona) and 1, 2, 10, and 20 kronor. Banknotes were introduced the following year, in denominations of 1 krona and 5, 10, 50, 100, and 1,000 kronor.

May 30 - Wed

The inland thornbill (Acanthiza apicalis) is an insect-eating bird of Australia. It averages 10 centimetres (3.9 in) in length and 7 grams (0.25 oz) in weight. This small bird lives in dry scrublands and woodlands, as well as the sand heaths and karri and jarrah forests of Southwestern Australia. It feeds on small insects and spiders, and occasionally seeds and small vegetable matter, beneath shrubs and in foliage.Photograph: Peter Jacobs